Exploratory songsmiths in search of meanings

Solar Ascent

Origin

Inspiration is a funny thing, and I’m still scratching what frame of mind made me write a song around such simple and generic chord progressions, while making it still seem experimental. This song was written in early 2000’s and there is a twin, Lunar Ascent, that I recorded for my solo album in 2007. Three verses, no chorus and one bridge makes this song among the simplest and most straight-forward, yet thanks to its off-the-wall lyrics it also comes across as highly experimental. We realize this one’s not likely to be one of our “hits” but it’s a fun little ditty that was easy to put together — this is the first song we tracked in World of No Errors and we mainly did it as a warm-up for other songs. But we’re also hoping the song’s quirky character gives depth to our otherwise humorless catalog — one of those “deep cuts” that serves as a surprise & contrast to other songs.

Music & Production

Built upon two ascending chord progressions, the basic song is so simple that this song needs a bit of layering to make it work. For World of No Errors we banned all “lead” instruments so the task of adding interest fell upon the bass part, which rose to the occasion by providing a melodic flare to the main verses. We usually stay away from this blanket approach of harmonizing-from-beginning-to-end that some acts like Alice in Chains employ, for the sake of having some place for songs to go. But with this song that didn’t seem to be an option. If we have more singers in the band we’d throw more voices to this song and probably build it sort of like the Beatles.

Lyrics

By this time my impressionistic/word-play lyrical style was firmly established, and this song’s strict rhyming scheme and its of lack of overt “point” keeps the song from being one-dimensionally repetitive. The bridge takes a surprisingly sinister turn, and we’re not entirely sure where that voice comes from. But that malice seems to be gone in the final verse, leaving the song with a more uplifting feel in the end.